Snag could delay extra Richmond-San Rafael Bridge lane

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The Metropolitan Transportation Commission said a third lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge might not open as scheduled in November. The lane would replace the shoulder during peak hours. (Robert Tong/Marin Independent Journal)

Commuters might have to wait until March 2018 to see that third lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge open up, transportation officials said Monday.

In January, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved a $27.2 million contract with Berkeley-based O.C. Jones and Sons Inc. to construct the third lane and associated work with a goal of opening the lane by November.

But one element of the work — pushing a retaining wall on the Richmond side back 15 feet to create sight lines for drivers in a third lane — is proving more difficult than originally thought as crews carve away a hillside, said John Goodwin, commission spokesman.

Transportation officials and the contractor will meet in the coming days to see if there is a way to get the work back on schedule, but speeding work will likely involve additional money.

“The project is a lot more than just a restriping job,” Goodwin said, adding that electrical work needed to hang signs over the third lane has started. Signs will show a green arrow or red “X” to indicate whether the lane is open.

“We will push as hard as possible to get the work done by the end of the year,” said Damon Connolly, Marin supervisor and a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission board.

Once open, the added eastbound car lane only will be available during commute hours, allowing Caltrans to retain a shoulder for maintenance work during other times of the day.

“I think there is a lot of pressure on MTC to open that lane,” said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Greenbrae, who has pushed for the project. “We have known for two years we wanted to open this lane. This project is long overdue.”

Other project elements in Marin include reconfiguring the Main Street onramp from the San Quentin Village area with a retaining wall to improve the traffic merge with the new lane, and replacing pavement on the bridge approaches to accommodate heavier traffic loads, according to officials.

The slowdown around the bridge in recent years has caused traffic to back up onto northbound Highway 101 and eastbound Interstate 580 in Marin. Opening a third lane could help ease that congestion, transportation officials said.

The traffic to the bridge has had a ripple effect. The northbound commute from 3:30 to 7:10 p.m. on Highway 101 from Marin City to north of Tamalpais Drive in Corte Madera has been ranked as 15th worst in the Bay Area. Drivers in that pocket lose 2,040 hours a day in traffic, according to Metropolitan Transportation Commission figures.

The bridge initially had three lanes when it opened in 1956, but when drought hit in 1977 a lane on the top deck was closed so a pipeline could be placed across the span to bring water to Marin. When the pipeline was removed in 1978, the top and lower deck lanes were converted to shoulders because of light traffic.

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is the third least-used of the Bay Area spans, ahead only of the Dumbarton and Antioch bridges. But over the past five years, traffic has increased about 13 percent as the economy has rebounded.

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